For Patrick Kuntz, organizing the annual Ignite Minneapolis event has been more of a hobby or labor of love than a business.

The event, like Ignite gatherings elsewhere in the country, features an eclectic roster of speakers who each are limited to five minutes and 20 slides -- 15 seconds per slide. Twenty such speakers are on the roster for the sixth Ignite Minneapolis on Nov. 21. The event already is sold out.

Kuntz, the event's executive producer, lately has seen Ignite Minneapolis evolve into something resembling a small business -- albeit one that won't make him rich anytime soon, even though it's a paid event.

For one thing, Ignite Minneapolis is growing.

Spurred by demand for this past summer's event, which sold out in minutes and even had a waiting list for about 400 seats, Kuntz is now staging Ignite Minneapolis twice a year.

What's more, Kuntz has moved the event from the Heights Theater in Columbia Heights to the larger Riverview Theater in Minneapolis, which has roughly 300 more seats.

Kuntz even expects to have a little money left over from next week's event to help fund another Ignite Minneapolis in the summer. The previous gatherings have been roughly break-even propositions, he noted.

The essence of the event is not changing. Ignite audiences in the Twin Cities and around the country adore the events because they are crash courses in about two dozen topics in about two hours.

For Ignite speakers, the event is an exhilarating and petrifying public-speaking challenge. They don't have control of the slides as they advance, and therefore have to practice beforehand to get the timing right. Some now recall their Ignite talks reverently as personal milestones.

Kuntz feels a degree of vindication because he recalls being advised against setting up a local version of Ignite. This was easy enough to do, with few onerous restrictions from the national Ignite organizers, but a sure-fire loser, according to some with whom he consulted locally.

Hardly, he soon found.

"I knew it would be a hit," said Kuntz, who works as a lead Web developer at Allianz Life in Golden Valley. "People in the Twin Cities love to go to smart events. They would rather have something that challenges them than a Friday night of drinking."

Ignite Minneapolis remains mostly a one-man operation, though volunteers led by Allie Bornstein pitch in for set-up, cleanup, evaluation of talk submissions and assistance with a new series of workshops for Ignite-speaker newbies.

Kuntz continues to dream about how Ignite might grow and prosper.

He has his eye on the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts in downtown St. Paul as a possible future venue, which would afford him even more space for attendees. He said the Ordway has approached him.

He knows he'd likely have to change the event's name if it were held in St. Paul, though. Ignite Twin Cities, anyone?